Carta XXI - Carta terza generale d'Asia

Robert Dudley was an English nobleman, navigator, and cartographer who spent much of his later life in exile in Florence under Medici patronage. His Dell’Arcano del Mare, first published in 1646–47, was reissued in 1661 under the shortened title Arcano del Mare. The atlas was the first printed sea atlas by an Englishman and one of the first to use Mercator’s projection consistently throughout.

This regional chart was engraved by Antonio Francesco Lucini and bears the notation “L.o2.o” in the title cartouche, placing it in Book II of the 1661 edition. It depicts an extensive region of the western Pacific and adjacent Asian waters. It includes the northern coastline of New Guinea and extends eastward into the Pacific, marking the Solomon Islands and other island groups. To the north, it reaches about 45° latitude, where it shows Isola di Iezo with a long, uncertain eastern coastline. The inscriptions identify the strait between Iezo and Japan, the coast of Matsumai, and the eastern coast of Iezo, while noting that part of the coast was “unknown to Christians.” This reflects early European uncertainty around Hokkaido, Japan, and the North Pacific. In the upper-right corner, a small section of the American coast is shown, including C. Mendoçino and C. Corrientes. An accompanying note observes that some charts place Cape Mendocino at only 40 degrees latitude, showing Dudley’s attention to conflicting geographical reports in the North Pacific.

The lower-left corner includes New Guinea and nearby island groups, accompanied by a corrective note stating that these islands are not the Solomon Islands, although they had been so identified on earlier charts. Together with the note on Cape Mendocino, this shows Dudley’s concern with comparing and correcting earlier geographical authorities rather than simply copying inherited Pacific geography.

Within the collection, this chart is closely connected with Dudley’s related East Indies and Pacific charts alongside the Australia chart (172)~, the Sunda Strait chart (223)~, the eastern East Indies chart (224), and the Pacific charts (274, #~275,~ #~276)~. Together, they show Dudley’s attempt to organise Asia, the East Indies, Australia, and the Pacific within a single maritime atlas.